ORANGE BEACH, Albama -- Local firefighters will soon be able to take all their training classes in their own backyard.

The Orange Beach Fire/Rescue department and Columbia Southern University in Orange Beach plan to partner with the Alabama Fire College in Tuscaloosa to have a regional training campus here by early fall, according to Fire Chief Shane Phillips.

"Our whole objective is to make it easier for firefighters here to be trained," he said.

The Mobile Fire Department was also selected as a regional training site for the fire college, according to Steve Huffman, a department spokesman. "We’re in the process of getting the memorandum of understanding written and signed," he said.

The Fire College will set up the classes and arrange for the instructors, many who will come from fire departments in Baldwin and Mobile counties. Firemen are certified in a variety of areas of expertise and many teach courses to their colleagues and the volunteer firefighters.

"Everybody in our region will have a hand in this," said Phillips, who oversees 46 fire and rescue personnel.

There have always been some courses that could only be taken at the Fire College in Tuscaloosa, such as officer and chief management curriculum, firefighters said. Now they will be taught at the regional sites, of which there will eventually be 10 statewide.

"We want to make it clear that it’s not a revenue stream," said Phillips, who submitted a proposal a year ago to be a regional site. The class tuition monies will be divided with 70 percent going to the Fire College and 30 percent to Orange Beach Fire/Rescue or Columbia Southern, depending on who teaches the class, he said.

The city’s 30 percent will be put back into costs related to the classes, including maintaining equipment on the drill training field. "Those drill field toys out there are expensive," he said. "The four-story drill tower with the roof cost $400,000.''

Convenience is a key factor in the regional sites, firefighters said.

"We have some guys that go to the college to teach some of those classes, so it will probably be convenient for them as well," Huffman said.

Phillips said he expects the beach classes will draw some firefighter families who want to vacation while the firefighter is in class.

And partnering with Columbia Southern "is a perfect fit," he said. Most of the hands-on classes will be taught at the Orange Beach Fire Station and drill field while the upper management courses will be scheduled on the college campus, he said.

The local fire stations will continue to teach classes, too, said Gulf Shores Fire Rescue Chief Hartly Brokenshaw. They will offer a six-week, firefighter 1 course in June, which is required to get hired as a fireman, he said. "We have people coming from all over the state."